Tour Description
From the 17th to the 20th centuries, Robben Island served as a place of banishment, isolation and imprisonment. Today it is a World Heritage Site and museum, a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of the price paid for freedom. During the Apartheid era Robben Island held many political freedom fighters, the most famous being former president Nelson Mandela, who began work on his autobiography Long Wark to Freedom while incarcerated here.
The journey to Robben Island begins with a half hour ferry ride across Table Bay – a journey that Winnie Mandela was forced to endure in the ship's hold on the occasions she was allowed to visit her husband. As well as a chance to see the cells in which ANC leaders studied while waiting for their release, the tour includes an opportunity to meet a former inmate of Robben Island.